Geesh, where to start? After reading some of the FNG flamings, not sure what to say. Not here to talk shit, just want to share my experiences and get some help, too. This is a long post, but should be worth the read. Probly gonna get blasted any way I go, so here goes nothin. I've got 17 years in the Army, currently serving a life sentence, or voluntary indefinite for those current and former GIs out there. Two themes run in the blood of my family: lifelong (20+ year career) Military service and old cars. I'm also a contributor to Ol Skool Rodz and Car Kulture DeLuxe mags. My Pops got me into the kulture lifestyle early. Although as a little one, I didn't have much interest in cars, but he drug me along to every show in the midwest in the early seventies. Trust me, there was no one else at my elementary school who knew who the hell Bill Hines or Ed Roth was. However, I was really fascinated with monsters and creepy shit. As an adult, I can't tell you how I relish the memories of metal flake paint, panel painted kustoms and meeting Ed Roth. Shit like that, you just can't trade, even though I didn't appreciate it at the time. We were always poor, so never was around any street rods, but had a healthy diet of led sledz. See, that's the way it was back in the 70's and 80's. If you couldn't afford chrome and paint for a streetrod (that word makes me wanna puke) then you were not a member of the "in crowd" and you drove a custom. Half of those guys were even shits and if your car was primed, you were second class. I guess it all started in roughly 1984. First thing you gotta understand is my Mom is the biggest "Car Nazi" in the world. My poor old man. She hates EVERYTHING automotive, even refuses to pump gas, she hates cars so much. Yup, Pops has to drive her car to the pump. At any rate, in the summer of 84 she tells Dad to take $200 and go to town and get her a new set of radials for her 1977 LeMans. On the way to town, Pops spies this 1953 Chevy Bel Air 2 door hardtop for sale. He stops to look at it, and it had a later 235, really nice original brown/tan interior, but the body was rusty all the way to the roof. Lo and behold it did have a brand new set of 15 inch radials with the blue shit still on the whitewalls. Pops was a body shop manager, so it was just his kind of car. The guy was asking $300 (remember, rusty Ohio car in 1984) but took the $200 that my old man offered. We take the car down to my Uncle's farm outside of town so my Mom can't see it (Car Nazi) and swaps out the wheels. We get back to the house and quickly proceed to start cleaning the blue off the whitewalls. Mom saw us and gave a grunt of some mild approval; closest to saying thanks that you'll get from her. At any rate, Pops hid that car from her for a good 9 months or so. He eventually told Mom he got it and some cash for doing a side job. The car was so rusty she actually believed him. One day on Christmas break, he pokes his head in the room and says "Boy, I got something real fun for you to do in the garage." Keep in mind, that, up to this point I had no real interest in cars. So I go out to the garage and my old man hands me a saber saw and tells me to climb on the roof of the chevy and "Cut'er down the middle!" Holy SHIT, I'm thinking, I get to cut the roof off a car!!! Pops had already made the cross cut behind the windshield and pulled the rear glass. Understand this, altough 14, I was about 160 pounds. You probly already have a good visual of what happened next. So I crawl my happy ass up on the car and get cutting. About 3/4 of the way through the cut, the top caves in, and I'm assholes and elbows trying to get out of that mess, while Dad is laughing his ass off at "customizer JR." To make this long story a little brief, Dad taught me to mud (about 5 gallons worth) primer, heat coils, home made lowering blocks, split manifolds, and most importantly how to drive in that old 53. We called her the "No-Topper". She wore grey primer, and had a set of chrome reverse. This was 1985, the era of ZZ top "glam paint jobs". Everywhere we went we were either denied access to show car parking or put in the farthest corner. And oh yeah, chrome reverse wheels were for welfare recipients in those days. BUT we had a lot of fun in that car for a couple of years. So, yes, I am an old car addict. I've got hundreds of stories like that, but will do my best not to tell them, don't wanna kill anyone's eyes. Dad and I had a couple of vintage engines laying around that we'd never used and traded them off to get a Model T touring car body a few years back. I asked him what the hell he was going to do with it, and he said "I'm gonna build a Duckworth" I asked him what the hell was a Duckworth? Then he lets me know about 69 cents a pound. I guess it's a Norm Grabowski thing, the older guys will know what I'm talking about. Apparently Dad and Norm did some drinking together in Minnesota when the NSRA had the Nats up there many a moon ago. Anyhoo, he takes the touring car and cuts in down into a truck cab, channels it and builds himself a rat rod. His garage burned to the ground this April, losing his uninsured rat and everything automotive that he's collected over the last 40 years, to include his class winning trophies from drag-racing at National Trail Raceway in 1966 and 1967. Of course Mom tells him there's no way he's building another rod or custom. (So I bought a 54 Chevy for him and we built that this Spring, but that's another story) Of all the magazines he lost, the ones he mourned the most was Ol Skool Rodz. So I decide to call OSR and order back issues and t-shirts as a "pick me up" for my old man. Wel the guy that took my order asked me if I could write, because they were looking for someone in Ohio to do some coverage for them. So I sent the above story in similar guise and I started working for Kool House publishing this year, covering a bunch of shows. I have always loathed the streetrod community and what they represent (rich fucking snobs that think their car and their ego are the same thing). I went to the Hunnert Car Pile Up this year and got the bug to build a rod. To anyone that went up there this year, that was the greatest show I've seen in the midwest, and thanks for the inspiration. If you saw the rattle can black 1958 Buick up there, that was mine. Drove 900 miles round trip on a 307 olds, 350 turbo and 10 bolt rear. Went through 10 quarts of oil, but it was an adventure. So I have been acquiring the parts to build "project rat" a 29 Model A roadster, that I am going to attempt to build circa 1955. It will be a tech feature in OSR, written from the "dummy" perspective, because although I've done plenty or kustoms and restoration, never built a hot rod. I have many friends on the HAMB and have decided to jump in myself. I'm really looking for some tech advice on doing some pie cut steps in the A frame. Don't blast me for using the original, it's bought and paid for. My goal is to stay on a $3000 budget and be as period correct as possible. I hope to limit my new parts to master cylinder and pedal assembly plus wiring harness. Otherwise, she'll be Ol Skool all the way. If anyone has measurements on where and how much to cut, I'd love to hear your input. I look forward to sharing my knowledge. Sorry for the long post. Frank "Stein" Wharton
Thanks for the welcome! Sorry about the long intro, but what else did you expect from a writer and storyteller? Gonna start a thread on the project I'm gonna start real soon.
welcome! and nice intro. I actually read the whole thing...I'm friends with Boston Bill who is also affiliated with OSR and CKD..he just bought my 59 Elky a couple months back.. Tell him i said hey...
Hey wassup Stein... You must be D Willys bud. Think he wanted you to get a pic of the flyin' eyeball tat he did on my leg. Cool...good to see another cowtown dude on here. What part of town you in? I'm in Grandview... Later, Olson
Frank: Nice story. I can relate. None of my father's rods were ever painted. As a matter of fact, none of them had any interior either. Anyways, I'm building a '29 roadster as well. I'm just up north from you in Michigan. Mine has a Model A frame that has a mild Z in the rear. Channeled about 3 inches. I inherited it from my dad who passed away a year ago so, despite it having a four bar, front and rear, which I know isn't very traditional, I'm going to press on. Fuck it. I've read every mag out there, including the one you contributed to. No four bars unless you're over 50, balding and wear a gold chain. I'm working with what I have. I love the traditional flavor, steelies, bias plies, etc... but I don't want to mix styles. Four bars and wide whites just look ridiculous. I'm thinking an 50's Indy inspired roadster. We'll see. Anyway, I look forward to your posts and maybe your progress will kick me in the ass to get mine done. It's all there. I just need to assemble it. I have a 265 Chevy with a three duece setup. '32 grill. All steel. If you need measurments, let me know. Mike Bishop and Vern Tardel have a book, Build a Traditional Hot Rod that I thought was worthwhile reading. Still haven't found anything covering the channeling of a body. Good luck with your Roadster.
Frank, ...........Thanks for a Great Intro.....................and Welcome to the H.A.M.B. from Arkansas City, KS. firstnomad www.angelfire.com/jazz/flatlandstudio
Welcome from Ontario, Canada, good intro, you're old man sounds like a cool character ( but not your mom ).
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